After dinner, especially in the summer, Jocelyn Bourgault and her two children like to go on what they call their “nighttime walks.” Often, they’ll use the public stairways that connect Northeast Wistaria Drive, where they live, to Alameda Street.
Sometimes the children will run ahead and play hide-and-seek on the stairs. That’s when the normally pleasant walks become a little stressful for Bourgault. She worries about broken beer bottles and other potential dangers she’s seen on the stairways.
In a neighborhood that’s otherwise well-tended, the stairs can be an eyesore or worse.
“They should be clean and beautiful, but I don’t know who’s responsible,” she said.
The city owns the stairways. But it turns out that if residents don’t maintain them, the job doesn’t usually get done. So a team of volunteers and Boy Scouts are taking up the cause.
Beaumont-Wilshire has three sets of public stairs within its boundaries – one on 38th Avenue just north of Wistaria, another at the intersection of Wistaria and 42nd Avenue, and a third a block east where Wistaria and Stanton Street intersect. All lead up to Alameda Street.
They are among the 188 stairways under the control of the city’s Transportation Bureau. The city tries to inspect the stairways every two to four years, said Cheryl Kuck, a bureau spokeswoman. But it only performs maintenance if residents call to complain about graffiti, debris, lighting or safety. The number to call is 503.823.1700. If lights are out, the number is 503.865.LAMP (5267).
Bourgault didn’t know about city policy, but she knew something needed to be done. So she contacted the Beaumont-Wilshire Neighborhood Association, which organized a cleanup crew on a Saturday in November. About 10 people volunteered to rake leaves, sweep the stairs and collect garbage on the two stairways from Wistaria. Al Ellis, association president, tried to clean graffiti, but it was too stubborn for the city-supplied solvents. Ellis is hoping a grant from Central Northeast Neighbors can be used to hire professionals to clean the graffiti.
Chris Labuhn, scoutmaster of Troop #107, was one of the volunteers. Labuhn, who lives in the neighborhood and often walks the stairs, said his troop of about 24 scouts plan to take on the stairways as a community service project. When the days get longer, the troop will try to get out about twice a year, maybe once in the spring and again in late summer or fall to clean the stairways.
Residents who live next to the stairs say they have never seen city workers maintaining the stairways. One neighbor hired landscapers to get the problem under control. Kuck said adjacent property owners are required to trim or remove overhanging vegetation blocking a public right-of-way area. On a recent visit, fast-growing hedges were beginning to block several of the lights over the stairways.
Residents who live along the stairs say it can be a mixed blessing.
“There’s good and bad,” said Kristin Butler, who lives at the bottom of a stairway on Wistaria Drive.
Her family likes to sit outdoors during summer and wave to people walking up and down. But Butler said Grant High students will loiter on the stairs at night, smoking pot and cigarettes and drinking alcohol. And she has seen plenty of broken beer bottles and smelled urine.
Roland Sarrazen, who lives at the top of a stairway on Alameda Street, said the teens can be noisy and he’s had some graffiti problems, but nothing serious enough to call police about.
Sgt. Pete Simpson, a Portland Police spokesman, did not return a call to see if the stairs are checked by patrol officers or if they are a security concern.
Bourgault wants the stairways to better reflect the rest of the neighborhood.
“So many people use the stairs,” she said, “and I want them to look clean.”